1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates electronic equipment, and more particularly to electronic equipment having on its front side an openable and closable front panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Installation of electronic equipment such as an audio device and a navigation device on a vehicle has widely been put into practice.
On the other hand, use of a card-type recording medium having a small size, called a “memory card” has also recently been generalized.
It has recently become possible to store information, which is to be used in the above-mentioned electronic equipment, in the card-type recording medium, so as to provide information sharing between the electronic equipment and a domestic or personal computer, as well as between a plurality of electronic equipment.
With respect to installation of the above-mentioned card-type recording medium on electronic equipment, a casing of the electronic equipment, which has a stationary front panel 101 as shown in FIG. 9, is embedded into a dashboard of a vehicle. As a result, it is necessary to form a slot-shaped insertion opening 106 into or from which the card-type recording medium is to be loaded or unloaded, on any place of the front panel 101.
It is however necessary to provide parts such as an operating dial 102, operating mode buttons 105, an operation displaying unit 104 and selection buttons 103a and 103b, by which the electronic equipment is caused to function, on the above-mentioned front panel 101. Accordingly, the above-mentioned insertion opening 106 must be formed on a place other than the above-mentioned parts such as the operating dial 102. Formation of the insertion opening 106 is however restricted by design which is made when determining arrangement of the parts such as the operating dial 102 on the front panel 101, thus causing problems.
The insertion opening 106 is exposed on the front panel 101, resulting in an increased possibility that the card-type recording medium loaded into the insertion opening 106 may be stolen, thus also causing problems.
There has also been known electronic equipment, which is to be mounted on a vehicle and has an openable or closable front panel. FIG. 10(a) is a partial side view of typical electronic equipment 200 in which a front panel 201 is opened by swinging the front panel 201 around a pivot shaft 206 provided on the lower side of the front panel 201, while moving forward a supporting member 202 to which the pivot shaft 206 is connected. FIG. 10(b) is a partial side view of the other typical electronic equipment 200 in which a front panel 201 is opened by swinging the front panel 201 around a pivot shaft 206.
In either case, there is adopted a structure that an insertion opening 205 for the card-type recording medium MC is formed on an inner wall 204, which is exposed from the front end opening of the casing of the electronic equipment when the front panel 201 is kept in the opened position (i.e., a state as shown in the lower portions of FIGS. 10(a) and 10(b)), and a connector 203 into which the card-type recording medium MC is to be inserted is further provided in a place corresponding to the insertion opening 205.
However, the card-type recording medium MC, which has an extremely small size, is connected to the connector 203 so as to project from the above-mentioned inner wall 204 by a small length. As a result, it is not easy to pull out the card-type recording medium MC from the insertion opening 205, thus causing a problem, even when the front panel 201 is opened as shown in the lower portions of FIGS. 10(a) and 10(b).